Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-22
" YORK TOWN"
What was Done In York Town, Ia i'll
I777-1S.

What was Done In York Town, Ia i'll
1777-7S.
An extract from Chauncey +. Blacks
York Centennial Grafton follows:
When the Continental Congress was
driven from Philadelphia by the approach
of the British army under Howe, what
place more appropriate for its refuge than
patriotic Yorktown? | like to call it
Yorktown, for that is the word in the date
lines over letters written by Adams, Han
cock, Laurens and their compatriots
through nearly year of that glorious
struggle. The Congress came in Septem-
Der, l777, and remained until June, I778.
1t was the gloomiest year of the war. Some
relief came with the surrender of Bur-
goyne; but even that priceless victory was
well nigh turned to disaster by the con-
spiracy which it encouraged against Wash
ington. 1t was the winter of Valley Forge
the winter OF intensest suffering to the
Southern army, and of sorest grief and
trial to the pure soul If its leader The
communications between the various armies
and this, the Capital, were constant,
and by the swiftest means then known
Couriers were constantly galloping in and
ont. Officers were hurrying hither with
reports and back with instructions. There
were many camps-camps Of patriot re-
cruts, camps of HesSians and camps of the
Convention men. 1t was a busy scene,
that which passed daily about the State
House, and the office of the Board of War,
and the printing presses of Congress, in
the Square of old Yorktown. Here came
rates with his gay retinue, after the splen-
did achievements of the Northern army,
TO preside over the Board Of War. and 10
take those cruel secret measures against
his august chieftain which clouded forever
the Just renown of his otherwise glorious
name. Here came LAFAYETTE to take the
| orders off Congress, and To drink confusion
to the enemies of Washington. Here Paine.
Secretary of the Board Of War, wrote i'm
portant numbers Of the immortal crisis"
Here eliminated Conway's cahal, and
| here ii was resolved, once for all, that
George Washington should bc sus-
tanned by his country-and than this
nothing really more momentous ever
occurred in the history of the continent
Here Hancock left the chair and Laurens
took it. Here John Adams, whom ,Iefer-
son loved t. describe us Our Colossus"
left Congress and the Board Of War and
started 90 his mission to France. Here
the Articles of Confederation were finally
considered, adopted and proposed to the
States-a step of unreasonable import
ance toward the complete Union we now
enjoy. Ii nothing Of historic interest
had ever occurred in York except this
adoption of the articles, and the final
triumph Of Washington in the civil coun-
ellis of the Contederacy, they would have
been enough to confer imperishable honor
upon the place. Washington" as Web
ster spoke it, "is in the clear upper sky"
and his immortal character is the treasure
not of his country only, but of mankind.
Our Union is equally secure, and we re-
pose under the protection Of Z just, regular
and powerful oyernment-disturhcd ~
none of the weaknesses and dangers which
confronted our fathers when their repre-
sentatives assembled at York in the dark
DAYS of HI.